Bluetooth mouse not auto-reconnecting

Bluetooth settings are controlled from configuration files in /etc/bluetooth. For input devices we can define a timeout before a connection will be disconnected. To disable this open /etc/bluetooth/input.conf as root in an editor and either comment out the following line by adding # (as it is done in the example below), or set timeout value to 0:

#IdleTimeout=30

Other timeouts that can be set in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf may not be affected in your case as they only play a role when a service may be interrupted (e.g. by bad signal strength) and will not be reconnected in case a timeout is set here. Default values for timeouts in main.conf are:

DiscoverableTimeout = 0
PairableTimeout = 0
PageTimeout = 8192

I appear to have solved my problem, and perhaps yours as well. After going through troubleshooting steps, here's I what have working now:

• I commented out AutoConnectTimeout in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf -- not set to 0, but commented it out completely. Not sure if this matters, but I'm keeping it that way for now. I don't want AutoConnectTimeout to time out.
• I set my IdleTimeout in input.conf to 240 minutes, this is a computer dedicated to watching movies, so can't hurt.
• I set RememberPowered in main.conf to false.

I was really wracking my brain on this, fearing I would ultimately have to write an F-ing script to ping my mouse via Bluetooth. However, after trying out different combinations of settings in the input.conf and main.conf files. My eyes rested on the RememberPowered option in main.conf. It was set to true. Wait, I want my computer to remember that my mouse was powered off? I don't want my computer to remember any power-state of any mouse. Just go connect and keep powered and keep connected and keep talking, and I don't care if the mouse isn't listening because I turned it off. So I set that to false. It appears this has solved my problem of my Bluetooth mouse not re-syncing up and re-connecting to input services after a long time of being turned off, with the computer still on.

I hope this helps you.

Note: It doesn't matter if you have USB mice or USB keyboards connected to your computer.

Check out my answer here:

https://askubuntu.com/a/582035/13903

Uninstall/purge blueman-manager or any extra bluetooth software. Go vanilla and just leave the original Ubuntu bluetooth software to rule out any conflicts.

1. Press the bluetooth mouse's discovery mode.

2. Open a terminal and type the command hcitool scan

3. Then paste the first half of your bluetooth address as the OUI.

So if your bluetooth mouse's address is AB:CD:EF:GH:IJ:KL

It would look like this:

<device oui="AB:CD:EF:" type="mouse" name="Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse" pin="0000"/>

Insert that line with the rest of the entries in

/usr/share/gnome-bluetooth/pin-code-database.xml

This helps to reconnect mice that may require a pin to pair.

This should solve most reconnection issues because Ubuntu doesn't know the PIN when it reconnects. You need to provide it with one (if it needs it default is 0000).

name isn't required, pin isn't required either. oui is required however. First find out if your mouse needs apin then try this. You can also try without using the name parameter if you don't know it.